The Bukidnon plateau is home to seven of the 18 different indigenous groups found in Mindanao. After doing some research, although it was fairly short I’ve learned a lot about the Lumad people (the Visayan word collectively used for all indigenous people in Mindanao). We spent most of the week with a Manobo community high in the mountains of San Fernando municipality. The Manobo people are just one of the 18 Lumad groups found in Mindanao; however, they have a number of subgroups with slight language differences and practices. The different Manobo tribes are semi-autonomous from the Philippine government and have their own laws, practices and judgements given by tribal chieftains (Datus).
To explore on the food preparation and cooking skills of
Manobo people most families in this community depend on root crops and what is caught in the forest for their food. However, food can sometimes be scarce so often times dried fish and rice has to be bought in the barangay market (5km down the mountain).
Inside this research are instances of their cooking practices, on how they prepare on their food. The upland Manobo practise swidden or slash-burn farming whereas those inhabiting the valleys practise wet-rice farming. Rice culture is so central to the Manobo way of life that there are more than 60 different names for rice varieties, and all agricultural rituals center around it. In the late 190s, however many Manobo groups shifted to corn culture because of the gradual disappearance of swidden sites. Besides corn grit, other supplementary foods are sweet potatoes and cassava. In times of famine, emergency foods are unripe bananas and wild yam. A typical village engaged in swidden farming begins the agricultural cycle in February, when rice and corn are planted. The corn is harvested in July but rice takes longer to grow and is harvested in November. During the summer, while